


Unintended Consequences

by KittyKitty707



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Black Mesa Sweet Voice, Death Threats, Interrogation, M/M, Mistaken Identity, Rescue Missions, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26635036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyKitty707/pseuds/KittyKitty707
Summary: What would have happened if Tommy ran into the room before Gordon had the chance to? How would that have changed everything?
Relationships: Benrey & Tommy Coolatta, Benrey/Gordon Freeman, Bubby & Dr. Coomer (Half-Life)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 73





	1. Impatience

#  Unintended Consequences 

## Impatience

Bubby agreed with him completely. He was just dead weight, complaining about every single little thing they did. But how would they do it?

When Benrey had run ahead of the group and ran into the military, he expected a confrontation, but instead, he received friendly greetings. He did have the proper paperwork after all. He was brought into a small tent and told the leading officer about his plight. “We just wanna go home, man. You want Freeman, right? If…If we bring him to ya, will ya just leave us alone?”

The officer sitting across from him sat for a moment, before him and another officer whispered to each other. After a few minutes of this, they turned smiling to Benrey. 

“Mr.Freeman would be quite a valuable asset for us. It would only be reasonable to give those who assisted in his capture a bit of…leniency.” He gestured to the guard beside him and began again. “My second in command here will give you the details about where and when to take the fugitive. I thank you for your support in this…tough situation.”

After receiving the details, the military group quickly packed up and left the area. As the group caught up to him, he signaled to Bubby that they needed to speak. While the others sat and chatted, Bubby and Benrey kicked a soccer ball, discussing the finer details. 

After they had settled down in the silo and Gordon was asleep, Bubby and Benrey discussed who they would tell. Dr.Coomer was too loyal and too loose-lipped. He could let it slip accidentally even if he shared the same feelings. They both immediately agreed not to tell Tommy. He wasn’t the kind to go along with these sorts of things. If he got upset afterward, they planned to give him a Beyblade toy Benrey had found to calm him down. It was the perfect plan.

Then it was suddenly time for action. The doorway was right ahead of them. They had discussed their grievances a few more times before this, but Gordon didn’t suspect a thing.

“Do you like HD DVD IDIOT or do you like Blu-Ray, friend?” Benrey taunted at Gordon. He just wanted him to enter the god damn room. He just wanted to stop seeing him. He wanted to stop thinking about him.

“We could watch movies! Maybe they have some cartoons in there!” Tommy chimed in. Benrey was so caught up in his thoughts he didn’t even hear the comment.

And then it all went wrong.

Tommy ran past Gordon, Benrey, and Bubby into the doorway of the room before they had time to react. Benrey and Bubby reached out to stop him, but he was too fast.

“No, Tommy, wait! Stop!” Benrey yelled. Tommy stopped halfway into the room and turned around confused. He looked Benrey with confusion and concern.

“What’s wrong, Benrey?” he asked, a second before the lights went out.

Benrey’s sense of sight and hearing was better than a human’s but not great. He could see and hear the figures moving over to Tommy carrying weapons. 

“No, wait, stop! You’ve got the wrong guy!” he yelled out. The others called out in confusion and concern as he heard Tommy let out painful groans accompanied by sounds of contact.  
Benrey ran towards Tommy and began to wrestle with the soldiers, who began to attack him as well.

“Gordon Freeman is over here you idiots! Get him!” Bubby declared, lighting a small fire on his fingers to show them the true target. Four of the soldiers ran over to Gordon, who began to fight them off blindly with his crowbar. “What the fuck is going on? This isn’t what is supposed to hap…” he began before one of the soldiers snatched his crowbar and slammed it into his head. 

Someone gasped and ran out of the room quietly.

He heard Gordon drop and one of the guards tell the other three to take him back to the base for interrogation. Benrey had now positioned himself in front of Tommy, who was lying injured against the wall. What he didn’t notice was the soldier proceeding to slam the crowbar into Bubby’s head seconds later, as he heard someone unsheathe a knife.

“I won’t let you hurt…” He also didn’t hear the same soldier running up behind him with it raised above his head.

Benrey may have been immortal, but he could still die and be injured. Being pounded on the head with a crowbar may have killed the average person, but the science team was not average at all. He was mostly unconscious, making out short parts of sentences of what the people around him were saying.

“…back to…tubes…lab…prisoner …on surface…”

“…one missing…two dead…two captured…”

“…our mistake…too bad…poor fuckers…”

“…scientist’s body…security guard?… leave them…”

“…interrogation…base is…trash compactor…”

“…might collapse…let’s go.”

The room went silent as Benrey slowly became more and more conscious. Someone had a stabbed him multiple times, but the injuries hadn’t killed him, leading to his body slowly healing the wounds. His head hurt like hell as he slowly sat up off the ground. He took off his helmet and saw the large dent in the side of it.

“Oof.” No wonder they thought he was dead. He tried to slowly think through the events of the day before until the thought hit him. Tommy.

He looked behind him to see Tommy, limp against the wall, his eyes gently shut. His arms had been cut off and there was blood everywhere. There were stab wounds in his chest and bruises on his face. 

He dropped his helmet and crawled over to Tommy, gently shaking his shoulders.  
“Tommy! Tommy! C’mon man! You gotta wake up!” He shook him harder, desperate for any sign of life.

“C’mon buddy, you can’t do this to me. You can’t. You need to wake up!” 

He wrapped his arms gently around Tommy’s chest and squeezed him hard against him. 

“Please don’t do this to me, Tommy. I need you. You’re all I have.” He held onto him, crying for who knows how long.

Until he felt it. Someone was behind him. Even without his heightened senses, he could see the shadow falling onto him.

He knew who it was immediately. The room seemed to vibrate and twist underneath him as he stared down into the floor. This was the only time he was truly scared of the man, with usually the roles being reversed. He slowly turned around and looked up into their eyes, still holding the body close to him.

“What. Have. You. Done.”


	2. Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordon wakes up and tries to get a grasp of his situation. It's not good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small note: I have decided to name the player William Wilson. Whenever they are referred to as Gordon, they are acting as such, but when I refer to them as William or Will, it means that the player is referring to/thinking about their true self outside the game. I chose this name because of a certain reason, which you may be able to figure out easily.

#  Unintended Consequences 

## Interrogation

William woke up reeling in pain. He tried to reach up for his head but realized his arms were tied down. He looked around dazed, slowly realizing the situation he was in.

He was in a tent and had been tied down to a chair by his arms and legs, ropes around each. The chair itself wasn’t very sturdy, but the ropes were. 

He sighed. He had obviously forgotten to turn the pain replicators off in the headset this round, which is why he could have been full-on knocked out in the first place. He outstretched his hand and swiped up to bring up a menu. He hit the “Pause Game” button and suddenly all the noise around him stopped. 

He was getting a little hungry, so he decided to log off for the night. He clicked on “Exit to menu” but nothing happened. He saw the message “error.sequencebreak detected” display on the screen.

He thought back and realized something odd. He had played the original Half-Life game before, and he thought was supposed to end up in a trash compactor after the guards knocked him out, not tied to a chair in some tent. The strange man who he had brought it from, which he called “Full Vr Compatible Half-Life remake with Self Aware Ai”, had said it would follow the same progression as Half-Life, just with some tiny changes to characters by adding AI. 

However, he was now in a completely different area than he had ever seen before. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the letter the person had sent with the package had said. He mostly brushed over it at the time, as he thought the person was over-exaggerating about how special the game was, with it being the only copy, and how dangerous it could potentially be. After the last few sessions, he had begun to agree with the first statement, but not the last.

Not at least until now. 

He shuddered as he finally remembered the last few lines of the email he had received. 

“Unfortunately, I have had an issue where sometimes if the game sequence breaks, you will be stuck inside the game until you beat it or die. The last option is not recommended, because, as you know, if pain replicators turned on, as you can accidentally inflict the same lethal injury as your character on yourself. I hope you enjoy the game! Please contact me if you have any questions!”

William felt the waves of dread fall over him. Surely, this was some sort of consequence for buying equipment and games off of a shady guy from a dangerous website. He screamed, desperately trying to reach up and remove the helmet from his face.

He knew the attempt would have been futile, even if the ropes were not sturdy, as the helmet he had bought worked by taking the signals from his nerves and transferring them into the game, and not into his actual body. He may have felt like he was tied to a chair, but he was actually lying in bed, alone in his small apartment.

He was going to die alone in some stupid game, on his bed, in a small apartment, away from all his friends and family. He could have sworn he had seen a television show with a plot similar to this. For William, today was the start of a week's vacation off from work, so no one would know he was missing until at least longer than that.

He took some small solace in the fact that he had used the extra money he had to buy a small “Hydration Expansion Kit”, which replaced the traditional cooling liquid with something more useful, saline solution. It had been invented for those who were too lazy to get up to drink every couple hours. When it was properly maintained, it could potentially last for you for days of playtime without needing another refill.  
He looked around the menu, went into the settings, and turned the “Hydration Expansion Mode” setting on. As Will checked it off, he heard a small beep and felt a painful pinch in his neck. He could tell that had just been injected.

He mocked himself aloud.“Great, so I’m not gonna die of dehydration, I’m just gonna die of starvation. Even better!” He had also just remembered that the button for the pain receptors was on the back of the helmet, meaning he couldn’t turn it off. He laughed and cried at the same time. “I’m gonna die. I am going to die.”

He sat crying to himself, before slowly regaining his composure. All he had to do now was beat the game. That was simple enough. He had heard of speedrunners beating the normal VR version in under an hour using shortcuts, so he could probably just try to run the whole way, right? He hit the same button on the menu and time resumed again. Someone was loudly chatting outside. He could see that they were standing right outside the door flap of the tent. It was once again time to become Gordon Freeman.

“Hey, you! Fucker! Let me outta here!” He tried his best to sound intimidating, but he was actually pretty still shaken up. The chatting directly outside stopped while the rest further away continued. Two soldiers entered the spacious tent, smirking. One stood directly in front of him while the other moved behind him out of view.

“Well well well, isn’t it the infamous scientist himself, Mr. Gordon Freeman.”

“That's my name, don’t wear it out.” He did his best to appear confident.

“Mr. Freeman, we don’t want to be much trouble. If you tell us what you want to hear, we’ll let you go off easy. Give you an NDA, and even a couple thousand bucks and no one will be the wiser. However, if you refuse to cooperate, we will have to use… more extreme measures. And you can find, our methods can be…” 

The other officer came back over, holding a crowbar, and handed it to the other.

“…quite persuasive.” 

Gordon shuddered as he began to lose his cool. “O-Of course. Whatever you say, boss! What do you want to know?”

The soldier tapped the crowbar up and down in his hand. “The men in charge have just got one question for ya.” 

“Who is Dr. William Wilson?”

Even after he had told him the truth, they still didn’t believe him. “I swear…I’m telling the truth…” Gordon’s face had a large bruise and was pretty sure they had at least fractured in his tibia. “I’m…I’m him…” His arms weren’t in the greatest shape either.

“So you trying to tell us that everything here is fake? A lie? Yeah, right. My commander is gonna love hearing that.” The first soldier handed over his crowbar to the other.

He cried out, pleading with them not to hurt him anymore. “Please, why would I lie?” His head drooped down painfully. “Why would I lie…”

The second soldier went to about to hit him again, but the first stopped him. “Wait, that's enough. I think our good Dr. Freeman here is just not right in the head, ya know? One of these.” The soldier did a little circling motion with his finger near his head. “ No use torturing the lunies. We better go tell the boss he’s lost it.” The second nodded and dropped the crowbar before leaving the tent. The first spit on the ground, muttering “All for fuckin nothin.”, before leaving as well.

William couldn’t think properly, as all he could feel was the pain. The HEV suit took the brunt of the damage, but some had still got through. He wasn’t too worried about the leg, as he couldn’t move it while the helmet was on, so walking would be easy. 

What he was more worried about was how he was going to deal with the pain, and what would happen if they came back, ready for more. He just wanted to go home, to go back to his little apartment and his boring lab job. He just wanted it to stop. 

Suddenly, there was yelling coming from outside and the sound of gunfire. People screaming in pain and a couple of explosions. Then quite suddenly, it went nearly silent. All he could hear was the gentle scraping of boots on the ground. 

Gordon let out a weary “Is…is somebody there?” as loud as he could. The footsteps stopped, before resuming again, coming towards the tent. He looked up to see a familiar security guard stepping through the doorway.

Gordon slurred his name, “Benny…”, which immediately caught the attention of the intruder. 

Benrey rushed over to Gordon and looked him over. “Gordon! Fuck man, what did they do to ya? I thought they were gonna kill ya, not just hurt ya. Fuckin rude.” He grabbed a knife from the back of the tent and began to cut the ropes.

Gordon didn’t feel well enough to properly process the admission, instead of muttering “It hurts…”. He just was happy that Benrey wasn’t stabbing him, and was actually being useful. As he cut the last rope, he looked at the dents and bruises on Gordon’s body. “Ow.” He pulled out a medkit from the same area and injected him with something. He didn’t feel a real pinch this time, but it still had the intended effect. The headset had temporarily cut his pain nerves off from sending the signals the moment he had been "injected". 

He sighed heavily with relief before stood up, smiling.“Thank god. Thank you Benrey.” He hugged Benrey quickly before moving to the floor to pick up his crowbar. Benrey stood still blushing hard and let a few pink orbs slip out of his mouth. He uncomfortably noticed that his crowbar now had some of his own blood on it.

“Uhhhh …no problem man. Dummy Freeman always getting hurt.” He patted his shoulder and walked out of the tent door. 

William paused the game for a moment, standing still. The noise stopped and he thought about telling them the truth. Surely Dr.Coomer would understand. Maybe even Benrey? But what about the others? He thought about it some more. He only had seen Benrey and not any of the others, so he decided he should probably just have that discussion later when the whole group was together again. It was important, and he didn’t want to lie to them anymore. Not when his life was at stake.

The game unpaused and Gordon grabbed the crowbar, walking out. He was surprised to see Benrey talking in Sweet Voice with a skeleton only a few feet away. He accusingly pointed his crowbar at Benrey, exclaiming, “Wait, I knew I wasn’t crazy! The skeletons! It's you man! You're doing this!” 

The skeleton turned its gaze to meet his. It ran over and hugged Gordon, surprising him. He gently pulled back from it, seeing that the skeleton wore a lab coat, cut off jaggedly on each upper arm, accompanied by a similar-appearing scar. It held out a gun inappropriately with one hand and it waved happily at him with the other. It was almost smiling as it sang out notes of green.

“Whoa wait, what is this?" He stopped for a moment to think, and took a step back in shock. "It can't be...You can’t seriously expect me to think that…”

The skeleton pulled a passport out of his pocket and handed it to Gordon. “No, this can’t be right…” 

Benrey chimed in without much emotion. “Yup. That’s the new SkeleTom. Skele-Tommy. T…Tommy…” Benrey looked down, crossing his arms and holding himself. He slowly slid down on the ground and pressed his hands into his face. He let black orbs slip out of the corner of his mouth and fly away as a low note played.

After a moment, Gordon gently nudged and whispered to the skeleton, asking him, “Tommy, if it's really you, what’s it mean?” Skele-Tommy tried to say something, but no sound came out. He was as close frowning as a skull could be he motioned for pen and paper. Gordon looked around and saw a small notebook and pen on a table nearby, which he handed to Tommy. After a moment, he handed the notebook back, and Gordon read it over. Tommy may have had childish handwriting but it was luckily very readable.

BLACK  
Black, of course, means remorse. 

As Gordon read it, Tommy had sat down beside Benrey, who now had his hands on his knees, and wrapped his arm over their back. Gordon sighed and sat down beside Benrey on the other side of him, grabbing his hand and looking upwards. 

“Look Benrey, we're all a part of the same team. We’re the Science Team. This means we gotta work together. I don’t know what you did or how you fucked up but now I know we gotta fix it and we are gonna do it together. Alright?”

Benrey gently squeezed Gordon’s hand as the balls slowed to a stop. He looked over at Gordon, lightly blushing, as he nodded in agreement. 

“If we are gonna fix this, I am gonna need to know what happened. Can you tell me what happened to you guys?”

Benrey looked over at Tommy, who encouragingly rubbed his back, trying to tell him to go on.

He turned his gaze up and began to recount the past few hours aloud to Gordon, all the while holding Gordon’s hand tightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please feel free to leave a comment or to make art of this! As seen in this chapter, things are going to get better, so it will not all be sadness. Stay tuned for the next one soon!


	3. Intentions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benrey tells Gordon a summary of events before the group travels to find the other members of the science team.

#  Unintended Consequences 

## Intentions

“What. Have. You. Done.”

The tall figure stared down at Benrey, the gaze so cold he already considered himself dead. It was Tommy’s dad.

“H-hello Mr. C-Coolatta.” he barely managed to stammer out. He knew something bad was coming, so he was completely expecting G-Man to cut his head off there and then. Benrey gently released Tommy’s body and closed his eyes. This was going to hurt.

Instead, he felt himself being lifted upwards by the collar of his shirt, his feet floating a few inches off the ground. The grip that they had on him also included grabbing onto a part of his tie, causing him to choke, which reflexively caused him to open his eyes and claw at the hand restraining him. “I am a patient man, but unfortunately, YOU have used all of my patience up.” He twisted his hand, tightening the grip and causing further strangulation. “I am going to kill you. Permanently.”

The threat sent chills through his spine. Many people had threatened, even tried to, and succeeded in temporarily killing him, but no one had ever been able to do so permanently. He would have known if it had happened, and he also knew that he didn’t want to stop existing.

Benrey managed to choke out “I ca-can heal-” He coughed. “-Tommy.” G-man’s eyes widened with interest, but his face stayed the same. He dropped Benrey, nearly throwing him to the ground, who began coughing and wheezing heavily.

“I’m giving you one chance to fix this.” He stared furiously as he held his hands behind his back. “Fix this. Now.”

Benrey didn’t know whether or not what he was doing would work, but it was better than not doing anything and risk getting perma-killed by G-man. He had to try something. He started by reattaching Tommy’s arms and healing his wounds with his teal green sweet voice, which fixed the biggest issues. He laid out the body on the floor gently and stood beside it.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Benrey.” G-man had placed a hand on his shoulder and was staring down with a tenacity that cemented the statement as a threat. G-man had never said his name before, at least to his face.

“Yeah, of course.” he lied nervously. He shook as he began to sing out a long teal note, which began wrapping itself around Tommy’s body. He had cocooned bodies before but never had reason to complete the process. He didn’t know what would happen, but he seemed to know what to do by following his instincts. When he could no longer see any portion of Tommy, he reached down over him, and gently placed a hand where his forehead was, causing the light to darken and solidify into a leathery material. Benrey stood back, watching as the material began to crack randomly. It suddenly burst open in a bright flash, causing both G-man and Benrey to cover their eyes instinctively. When they looked back, there was now a skeleton wearing Tommy’s tattered clothes. 

G-man stood in shock for a moment before running over and lifting up Benrey by his shirt collar again, choking him ten times harder than before. He was holding him considerably closer to his face, and his eyes seemed to glow with his hatred. 

“What you have done has …only made things worse for yourself… child! I have been …holding back until now… but not anymore. I am going to enjoy …ripping you apart, atom by atom, until there is …nothing left for you to-” He cut himself off, looking over in shock as he felt someone pulling hard on his arm. 

The skeleton, which eye sockets were glowing a bright yellow, was mouthing words as it pulled on him desperately. Instead of having normal eyelids, his were black and formless, framing his eyes to show his desperation and concern. “T…Tommy?”

G-man dropped Benrey without care, grabbing onto Tommy’s shoulders. Benrey fell back nearly limp, hitting his head hard against the concrete with a crack. It hurt like hell as everything went black momentarily. He regained his consciousness quickly and sat up. Shit, that hurt. Benrey stood up, moving over to the pair who were having a lopsided conversation, one in a sweet voice, and the other in English. Lots of colors of concern and confusion from Tommy, while G-Man tried to reassure his son that everything would work out in the end and that his current form would “fix itself” eventually. G-Man turned, seeing Benrey was now awake again and talked to them both.

“While this doesn’t make everything better, this is very...satisfactory. For now, I will let you off, but you now must find Gordon …Freeman, and help him continue until the …end of his journey. It is of the utmost …importance that you do as such, for much more is …at stake here than you could possibly …comprehend. I will… see you both again soon, but first...”

Benrey gulped and stopped telling Gordon the story. “Benrey, what happened after that?” Benrey contemplated what to say next, and quickly shook his head before speaking again. 

“Uhhh, man, he just gave me this nice knife and left. That’s all. Look at it, it’s pretty cool, eh?”

He pulled out the knife and tilted it back and forth, showing the strange shine it had. It looked different than all the other combat knifes Benrey had seen, and it almost seemed to glow when he held it. Strange. Gordon grabbed the knife carefully and the moment he held it, it seemed to violently shake, and he dropped it. 

“Guess I’m not supposed to hold that. Looks cool, but kinda weird. Now, let’s get going. We gotta find the others, quickly.” Gordon stood up and dusted himself off. “What happened to Bubby and Dr.Coomer? Do you guys know anything about where they went?”

Benrey was about to speak when Tommy let out loads of yellow sweet voice and his bones rattled excitedly as he stood up. He let out tones of neon blue and green while pointing towards the path ahead. Gordon nodded and waved for him to lead the way as Tommy moved over up to a ladder and began to climb up it. Gordon followed, with Benrey coming last shortly after picking back up his knife. 

He hadn’t told the others, but he had left a small bit out from the story. It was partly because he didn’t want to piss off G-Man any further but mostly was because he didn’t quite know what to make of it himself.

“…but first…”

G-Man stopped time around them before he spoke again. His voice had now lost all the calmness and soothing tone it had before when he was addressing Tommy, and it sent chills up his spine as they stared down into Benrey fiercely. It must have been a powerful time stop, as he couldn’t move anything, only listen as they spoke. 

“..You and I need to get a few things… straight. You are not …off the hook. You will die…horribly, painfully, and I will enjoy every second of it, I …promise you that. Only if and when you find a way to fully…reverse what you have done to him, you will be granted the mercy of a…peaceful demise. Now, let us continue our…facade, for Tommy’s sake…Benrey. Or should I say…Endgame.” 

Before he could react, time resumed, and G-Man was once again calm and was handing him a knife.

What did he mean by “Endgame?” It was such a peculiar phrase and yet, to him, felt familiar. Was he really “Endgame?” He had only ever known himself as “Benry”, not as “Endgame”. He shook the thought off as he continued behind the others. It was something he would figure out later. For now, he had to concentrate on protecting Tommy and an injured Gordon. He couldn’t risk further angering G-Man, and he would have plenty of time later to think it through while everyone else slept. As Gordon crawled through the pipe in front of him, he couldn’t help but crack out a joke.

“Ooo, likin the view from back here.”

“What is your fucking problem?”

Going through a large room filled with conveyor belts covered in skulls is definitely a strange experience in itself, but being thrown off of one of those conveyor belts into a room filled with sewage? Now that was just gross. 

“Tommy, this really OSHA approved?” Gordon groaned out as they all trod water. Benrey looked disgusted Tommy nodded and gave them a thumbs up. He let out a white to green sweet voice, causing Gordon to look over at Benrey expectantly. 

“Uhh…he says the water is clean, man.”

Gordon groaned loudly and pressed his hand into his face. “I don’t think it is, Tommy. I don’t think it is.” Tommy waved for the other two to follow him, diving below the surface of the water. Tommy, not needing to breathe, pointed through the water at a nearby opening for the others to swim to. As Benrey swam behind Gordon, he blew a raspberry underwater.

“BBBBBBBB!”

Gordon seemed to struggle to hold his laughter in, before letting out a raspberry as well.

“BBB-!”

The raspberry was cut short when Gordon broke the surface, Benrey following seconds after, with Tommy not far behind.

“Ahahaha-Oh shit, what the fuck?” Benrey commented, noticing what had stunned Gordon.

The room was filled with Dr.Coomer. Well, not Dr. Coomer exactly…hundreds of clones of Dr.Coomer, all staring down at the three characters swimming in the water.

“Hello, Gordon!” Dr.Coomer stated. The room full of clones repeated the statement constantly, deafeningly. As Benrey and Tommy hopped out of the water, one spoke above the rest. “I’ve unleashed the power of all 300 clones!” 

As the clones swarmed them, Gordon realized that the game must have glitched, causing him to be stuck in the pool. “I can’t get out of the water…He’s got me pinned!” Benrey pulled out his knife and began to let loose into the clones as Tommy turned back to Gordon. “Tommy!” He pulled Gordon out of the water and began to fire at the clones around him. It was so chaotic and sudden, Gordon could barely comprehend it.

The clones began to push and shove Gordon into a corner, while Benrey, cackling, continued stabbing the bodies of clones Tommy killed. Suddenly, one of the Coomer’s ran over closer to Gordon, who did his best to fend them off with his crowbar, until it was snatched from him by a nearby clone. 

“You’re the key to leaving this world, Dr.Freeman. AND I WANT IN!”

One of the clones took out a syringe and injected Gordon with something, causing him to yell out. Benrey cackled as he sliced at the nearby clones, causing the speaking one to run backward. Gordon followed them, picking back up his crowbar as Benrey maniacally cackled, stabbing the bodies. He took swings with his crowbar as Dr.Coomer spoke, dodging every strike.

“I’ve been outside Black Mesa, Dr.Freeman. There’s nothing there. But you. I know there’s a world in your dreams. AND I NEED TO GO THERE.” The Dr. Coomer took swings at Gordon as he laughed nervously to himself in shock. “Tommy! Benrey! Get him away!”

Benrey watched as Gordon ran up the stairs away from one of the last clones, which seemed to be more resilient than the others. Tommy fired as Benrey ran up, taking wide swings at them, missing. The bullets seemed to have no effect on the clone or Benrey as they all followed Gordon. He watched as Gordon fled on top of a water turbine in the next room.

“End of the line, Dr.Freeman.”

Gordon screamed and disappeared into the water, as Benrey caught up with the clone, slashing it wide across the chest, and causing it to fall limp. He turned back to the water, seeing Gordon was nowhere to be found. “Where did he go?” The skeleton shrugged, as they moved back into the main room. Benrey waved Tommy over as he noticed some soda’s in the corner of the room, but stopped as he heard a voice behind him.

“…and Black Mesa…Someone brings me up!” 

Benrey dropped the cans and obliged, pulling Gordon up and out by his arms.

“Up you go, Lil baby.”

“Thanks,” Gordon commented sarcastically before collapsing into the fetal position. “I need a rest.” He sounded tired.

“We killed em all. All them clones got a kill streak.” Tommy nodded and opened a soda, somehow drinking it, even if he lacked the necessary organs. 

“Nice Benrey, real nice.” There wasn’t a lot of energy, just tiredness and hints of panic. It took Benrey a moment to realize he must have been having some sort of anxiety attack. 

“Uhh…You okay dude?” he asked nonchalantly.

Gordon hissed through his teeth and held onto his injured limb. “No, I’m not FUCKING okay. Those army bastards you sold me out to broke my fucking leg! And now I’ve got to deal with fucking clones trying to kill me? This is just great.”

Tommy walked back over beside Benrey and shot at the bodies in between sips, as Benrey crouched over Gordon. “Damn, you’re a little clumsy boy, aren’t you? Getting your leg broken and stuff. Not great.” His shitty attempt at comforting Gordon caused the man to crack a laugh, which faded into seriousness. Gordon sat up a bit out of the position he was in, looking at them.

“Guys, are you sure you killed them? ALL of them? Did you kill the real one, the one going on about ‘the world in my dreams’? Did-did you hear bout that? What did he mean?”

“I already said we got 'em all, dummy.” Benrey turned to look at Tommy, who was letting out burnt orange and coral pink sweet voice, as he held out a soda.

“What?” he sighed.

“Tommy’s asking you if you wanna soda.”

Gordon laughed dishearteningly to himself before collapsing onto the floor again. “I’m gonna die...”

“No…don’t do that man. Gotta…get you outta here.” Gordon groaned as he slowly sat up and talked to himself.

“Damn, I feel tired. I think some of the sewage might have gotten into my bloodstream.” He leaned back against the wall as he turned to the others. “Now listen, guys. you have to tell me the truth, did one escape? The one that followed me?” Benrey started to speak but Gordon kept going. “Did you track it down, did you kill it? Did you kill it?!”

Tommy waved his hands and let out many different colors, as Benrey stared, trying to interpret. “Yeah, Tommy’s right. They all looked the same man, they’re clones. Musta slipped by us. Whaddya want us to do?”

Gordon groaned as he rose to his feet shakily, steadying himself. The pain was coming back again, shit. He made his way over to the meditation, but there was nothing left in it. “It’s empty! Fuck…” Gordon would have to grin and bear the pain for a while.

“No drugs left. Guess he musta used them, or something.” Benrey smacked his lips.

“Thanks, Benrey.” Gordon sarcastically assured him, as he began to continue up the stairs.

Benrey didn’t pick up on the sarcasm.“No problem.” 

The three walked past the body of a clone slowly, as Gordon was having trouble standing. Fuck, had the army goons really hurt him that bad? Or was it the sewage? Benrey wasn’t sure, but his thoughts were cut short by a familiar voice behind them.

“SURPRISE ATTACK, GORDON!”

Gordon screamed and ran out of the room as the other two attacked the clone, unable to kill them, but immobilizing them as it sat slouched against the wall. Benrey rushed back into the room to see Gordon’s body sinking in the water. Fuck, the idiot could barely stand, and yet somehow thought it would be a good idea to swim? He jumped into the water himself, dragging Gordon up to the surface and then push his body onto the floor of the hall. Gordon coughed, sitting up, and used the other two for support as he tried to stand.

“Don’t drown yourself, idiot.”

“Did you do it? Did you kill him? He-He can’t keep getting away with it!”

They helped him into the hallway, where he let go of their shoulders and stood weakly over Dr.Coomer’s body. 

“Did you kill him?”

As Tommy nodded and Benrey agreed “Of course we did.”, Gordon collapsed onto his knees, covering his ears. Benrey could sense some sort of powerful energy wafting over Gordon and the clone as Gordon yelled at the body to “Shut up!”. He slapped it in the face before covering his ears again. “Get out of my head!” Benrey looked over with a little concern at Tommy. 

“Uhh… you ok, man?” 

Gordon continued staring at the body in his curled up position, not hearing the question. “Get out!” He was about to approach Gordon when he felt the energy fading away, and Gordon turned to look at Benrey and Tommy to his left as the body suddenly disappeared just before he glanced back. “We’re fucked! We’re…We’re fucked!” 

Gordon looked down at his hands as he slumped over onto the floor. “Is this even real? It’s not even real.” Benrey thought to himself that Gordon must have been seeing things or something, which would probably explain the weird behavior. Oh well, whatever.

“Do you guys have any words of wisdom? Anything that can help me tell what the fuck is going on here? Or otherwise? Help!” Benrey was about to make a sarcastically rude remark about Gordon going insane when a familiar voice overpowered them.

“Ah, Hello Gordon!”

Gordon screamed out in terror and threw up his arms defensively as Tommy let loose into Dr.Coomer with his gun and Benrey ran over, taking a wide swing at him with his knife. The knife made contact but unlike the previous clones, it remained unaffected by the cut, simply leaving a streak of blood across his body. Benrey took a step back as Tommy stopped shooting. This one was different.

“Fine work taking out my clones!” Dr.Coomer cheerfully approved, covered in blood. 

“Please! I don’t-!” Gordon stumbled back and fell over.

“Now Gordon there’s no need to fe…e…ar.” His words trailed off.

“Dr.Coomer?” Gordon weakly asked as he stood up.

“Don’t let my bloody form frighten you, Gordon.” He approached Gordon swift with a cheerful smile. “It’s me! Your friend. Dr.Coomer!” 

Gordon stumbled back a little further, asking “How c- How can I trust you?” Gordon didn’t see it right away but Tommy began to let out neon green. “What are you talki-” As Gordon saw the sweet voice he turned to Benrey desperately. “What?” 

“Uhhh he thinks this one is safe. I do too, man. Look, I can cut ’im and he doesn’t die.” Benrey proceeded to demonstrate this by slashing and stabbing Dr.Coomer to no avail. 

“Ow, that rather hurts Benny.” 

Benrey stopped the slashing and turned to Gordon. “See?”

Gordon sighed and groaned as he put his face into his hands. “Yeah, that is kinda like the Coomer we know and love.” He looked up at Dr.Coomer. “Coomer. Say it back to me.”

“Yes?”

“One more ti-prove-prove it to me. In…In one sentence, prove it to me.” He held his hands defensively to keep Coomer away as he waited.

“Gordon, I’m thirsty.”

“If that is what’s behi-” Gordon was cut off by Dr.Coomer running past him and interrupting him.

“Oh, it looks like quite the bloodbath in here! Hah-hah!” Dr.Coomer stood surveying the destruction in the previous room.

“Yeah, it does.” He laughed weakly. He took a deep breath and turned to Coomer. “Heres where I stand. I’m gonna trust you because I have no other option. If it’s between this and whatever the fuck I just experienced, I gotta go with you man. I don’t know what that was!” 

He contemplated for a moment before speaking once more. “Do you know anythi-was it Benrey and Bubby who planned that? They were whisper-”

“I’m right here asshole. You coulda just asked me, ya know, like a normal person. Stupid.” Benrey interrupted Gordon, quite offended. C’mon, seriously Gordon?

Gordon sighed before stumbling around. “I’m gonna fall over.”

Dr.Coomer helped steady Gordon. “Perhaps you should have a seat, Gordon.”

“I should.” He sat down and the others followed suit around him. “Somebody please give me a lifeline here, something. Just tell me something, something that could calm me. Benrey? Dr.Coomer?”

Before Benrey could respond, Dr.Coomer started. “Well, I did notice that you and Bubby have been…whispering for quite some time. About how to…handle a problem.”

“A problem? Why am-?”

Benrey quickly added before Dr.Coomer could continue. “We tried to handle you real good, but it looks like it didn’t work out, hey?” He tried to say it as nonchalantly as possible.

“Why?! What was it? My trackers? The GPS trackers or whatever?”  
“Nah, you’re just annoying as hell. And you don’t have your passport, man. That's a big no-no.” 

“Passport?” Dr.Coomer added.

“Passport.” Benrey agreed, Tommy nodding along.

“This is all over a goddamn passport? I am going to fucking strangle you!” Gordon lunged at Benery, knocking him over and landing on top of him. 

“Woah, chill out man!” As Gordon began to grip his throat, Benrey made no attempt to fight back. Tommy tried to pull Gordon off of him, as Dr.Coomer spoke from his seated position.

“Now Gordon, that’s no way to treat a friend. Besides, no one got hurt after all.” Gordon let go in surprise and turned to Dr.Coomer, Benrey taking the opportunity to move out from underneath Gordon and to sit near Dr.Coomer. 

“How-What? What do you mean no one got hurt? Look at Tommy, for crying out loud!”

“What’s wrong with Tommy? He looks healthy.” Dr.Coomer replied, staring into Gordon’s eyes.

“He’s a fucking skeleton!”

“Gordon, what do you mean he’s a…” Dr. Coomer’s face turned from smiling to horror as he realized the truth. “Y-you appear to be correct, Gordon. I don’t know how…I have no idea why I didn’t notice before, I could have sworn he looked like normal just a moment ago.” He stared down into his hands. “I don’t-I don’t underst-” His head shot up to face Gordon suddenly, smiling. “Hello, Gordon!”

Gordon gave Dr.Coomer a look of concern before another wave of weakness hit him again. “Ugh…I feel so tired.” He lied down on the ground facing upwards, looking over at Dr.Coomer. “I hate to admit cowardice, but after I began to witness the bloodbath with the military, I ran out of the room, and only recently have started looking for you. I have yet to find a trace of where they took Bubby, but it is probably not somewhere pleasant considering that they are boot boys!”

“That fucker deserves it.” Gordon groaned. The comment gave Benrey an idea. A cowardly, hurtful idea. An idea that might be able to save his ass from Gordon’s anger for a bit longer, at least. He had already hurt his one friend enough, why not hurt the other.

“It was his idea anyway. This whole thing, with the military and stuff.”

Dr.Coomer looked shocked and betrayed while Gordon’s fury grew. “What? That bald fuck was behind all of this? I am going to strangle him! And none of you will stop me this time, I can tell you that.”

Dr.Coomer’s face shadowed as he spoke. “Can I help?”

“Yeah, you can do that. That’d be fun for you, I bet.”

“Exciting!” Dr. Coomer added. Benrey stayed quiet as Tommy’s glowing eyes stared into him silently. He definitely knew Benrey was lying, but he didn’t let out a single note. Just stared into him, with shame.

There was a pause before Coomer broke the silence.  
“I see you encountered…my clones.”

“Yeah, the nightmare.” Gordon agreed from the floor.

“Now Gordon, it’s only safe to warn you. I felt everything they felt!”

Gordon let out a shaky laugh before pointing at the other two. “They were the ones that did that, just so you know. Tommy and Benrey killed all of those.”

Dr.Coomer nodded. “Oh, I’m quite aware. Fine work, boys.” He thought for a moment before looking over at Gordon, who seemed to be melding with the floor. “Are you feeling quite alright, Gordon?”

“I’ll be fine, I guess. Everything just feels soo heavy. I’m so tired.” It felt like someone was sitting on his limbs, holding him down onto the floor. No wonder he couldn’t swim.

Gordon could almost see the lightbulb appear as Dr.Coomer stood up. “That’s right! One of my clones must have injected you with drugs! Injecting you with toxins so I could catch you and wear you like a puppet obviously didn’t work, so I should probably find something to help. Benrey, follow me please.” Dr.Coomer got up and waved for Benrey to follow as they walked down the stairs together. 

“That is the scariest sentence I have ever heard.” Gordon was about to pass out due to the pressure when he felt a sting in his arm and the weight slowly lifting. 

“That oughta do it. I knew one of my clones would have had an extra vial or two on them. That stuff is expensive.” Dr.Coomer crouched down and helped Gordon to stand. “Hello, Gordon!”

“Thank you, Dr.Coomer. Now, one last thing before we keep on going. Is there anything we can do to help Tommy? Like, fix him maybe?”

Dr.Coomer thought for a moment.“Hmm, I don’t know. The cybernetics department may have a few spare super arms or power legs lying around, but I’m not sure.” 

“It’s better than nothing. Where is that?”

“I believe it’s next to the Lambda department.”

“Oh, so it’s on the way? That’s great news!” As Gordon finished, Tommy began to let out a yellow sweet voice and waved his arms excitedly. He let out a mix of other colors before returning to yellow, causing the other two to turn to Benrey for an explanation. 

“That’s good. He knows where it is, apparently. Says something about big soda jars there.” Benrey shrugged and continued ahead, saying “We gotta head this way.”

As the others moved on, Gordon walked beside Tommy, pulling out the notebook and pen again from before, and handing them to him. “I want to learn a bit, so maybe can you write some down for me?”

Tommy took the notebook and wrote in it before letting out a grey sweet voice and showing Gordon the page. “Grey means OK!”

Gordon gave Tommy a thumbs up before moving ahead to follow the others.

As he moved past the water again, Gordon commented “That sewage water is dirty as hell. I don’t think me swallowing some is good for my health.” Tommy’s bones rattled angrily, and they all turned to face him. He let out a white to green sweet voice again, which Gordon recognized immediately. “No, it is not clean Tommy.” He shook his head.

“It’s not clean, bro.” Benrey 

“It’s not clean,” added Dr. Coomer chillingly.

After traveling through the “Skull grinding facility” and witnessing some epic boxing skills from Dr.Coomer, the remainder of the team found themselves near the entrance of a room when they heard…voices. It was the military. 

“Everybody be quiet. Let’s sneak up on them, see what they have to say, ok?” Everyone gave Gordon a form of agreement, a shrug, a nod, and a thumbs up. Gordon got to the doorway and listened carefully.

“Look at you squirm. Not so smart now, aren’t you? Too bad they wanted to have you kept intact, or else we could have had quite some fun, eh?”

“Let me out of here, now! You’re going to regret it!”

“Yeah, but I’m getting impatient. If they don’t come soon, I’m just gonna go ahead and shoot him anyway. Say it was an accident or something. You’re fucking annoying, you know that?”

“I’d like to see you try. If you let me out, I bet I could beat you into the ground in ten seconds flat.”

“Nope, ain’t happening buddy. Now shut up and let us wait in peace before I shoot you.”

Before they could do anything else, Benrey got up from his crouched position and walked towards the guards. “What the fuck are you doing?” Gordon frantically whispered as Benrey continued up to them.

“Yoo! Hey, do you have your passports? Otherwise, you’re not allowed to be here.”

“What the fuck?”

“I thought you were dead! Didn’t I kill you?”

The boot boys stumbled back as Benrey continued his approach. “Do you have your passports?”

“I have no fucking clue what you are talking about buddy!”

“Too bad.” Benrey pulled out his knife and slashed at them, killing them both after a few blows. He turned to the large tube in the middle of the room and spoke again. “Hey, it’s Bubby! Ya got your passport?”

The others ran over and saw that it was indeed Bubby floating inside the tube. Gordon noticed the liquid near Bubby’s head was far redder than the other parts. Oh, his head was bleeding.

“I have it right here, in my pocket. Let me out and I’ll give it to you!”

Benrey was about to press the release button when Gordon grabbed his hand and stopped him. “Ah ah ah! Nope! You’re not getting off that easily, motherfucker!” He shook his head at Bubby as he approached the glass.

“Gordon! C’mon! They put me back in my goddamn tube!” 

“You planned to have me killed! Just because you didn’t like me? You bitch?” Dr.Coomer began punching the glass of the tube, angrily. 

“Gordon I didn’t betray-!”

“Shut up you fucking liar! Benrey already told us the whole thing was your idea anyway! The jig is up, bitch!” Benrey looked away, over at the screens as Bubby yelled at him.

“What? You told them this was my idea? You little shit, when I get out of here, you’re done for! You’re a fucking coward, you know that!”

Benrey said nothing, continuing to stare guiltily at the screens with his back to Bubby.

“Our friend over here is a little frustrated with ya. You wouldn’t like to, uh, break open this glass!”

“Gordon, the glasses' structural integrity is at 12%!” Dr.Coomer announced. 

“Oh ho ho ho, Dr. Coomer is gonna have a fun time with you when this glass breaks. Let you in a room with him, you’re fucked.” Gordon grinned.

“Well fine then, be that way. It doesn’t matter anyway, only I got hurt. You can brag all you want, just let me the fuck out of here!”

Gordon, or William in this case, realized after the repeated sentiment from Bubby that the AI probably couldn’t notice the change in Tommy until he brought it up. That was strange but he could make it work for him. Just as the cracks got really prominent, Gordon spoke again, staring Bubby in the eyes with a look that could kill.

“Tommy is a fucking pile of bones!”

Bubby’s illusion seemed to shatter as the first layer of glass did. A rain of realization, terror, and then complete and utter confusion.

“But I could have... Tommy is a... how in the... This doesn’t make any sense!” He took a step back in his tube. “This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Dr.Coomer seemed disappointed that he couldn’t break the glass any further and stopped punching, instead, standing nearby and glaring with his arms crossed. “This happened because of what you did!” Gordon hit the glass angrily, resulting in a glassy thud ringing out. Benrey flinched at the sound, which everyone but Gordon noticed. Was he feeling guilty? Nah, couldn’t be.

“I never told them to do that! They…They fooled me!”

“Wait…How did you get in there?”  
“They put me in here! There’s no way in here! Why would I go back to my tube!”

“Hahaha! Get fucked! Get fucked!” Gordon laughed and mocked Bubby, flipping him off. “Welp, we are leaving and you can just have fun in your little tube or whatever. What you fucking deserve.” He turned around towards the door.

“Wait, this isn’t all my fault! You did fuck up, to be fair. And Benrey was the one who planned this whole thing anyway!”

Gordon whipped back, pressing an accusatory finger against the glass.“Yeah, I might have, but I don’t think that sort of thing is going to help you out of this situation, my man.”

“I’ll…I’ll give you five dollars.”

“The five dollars you murdered a man for?”

“Absolutely!”

“Gordon, the exchange rate for dollars to PLAYCOINS is five dollars to one!” Dr.Coomer admitted excitedly.

“One PLAYCOIN, huh?” Gordon looked over at Tommy contemplatively and paused.

“It’s a bargain!” blurted Dr.Coomer encouragingly, as he leaned on the tube. Of course, he was rightfully angry at Bubby but didn’t want to leave him behind. Why, the dead soldiers friends might come, and then who knows what might happen to poor Bubby.

Bubby took the hint from Dr.Coomer and nodded at him. “It’s a hell of a deal, Gordon.”

“You know what…No.”

Dr.Coomer fidgeted with his hands. “What? But it’s an incredibly good deal, Gordon.” The whole room went silent. It seemed everyone was expecting a yes, expecting forgiveness.

“There's no fucking way I can trade Tommy’s life for five dollars. If it was different-If it was me-If you had got the intended target and I was a fucking skeleton or something, maybe, then I would forgive you. But you hurt Tommy. He’s like this now, forever. I would feel the same if it was anyone else here as well. You did that, and I can’t forgive you Bubby. It’s just the way I am.”

They turned around and walked calmly over to the door. “Wait! Don’t leave me here!” Bubby banged on the glass as Dr.Coomer slowly began to follow. “Please, Gordon.” The usual cockiness in his voice was gone.

Gordon placed a hand on the doorframe and paused, looking back momentarily. “I’m sorry.” He continued on, Dr.Coomer following while staring back at a horrified Bubby.

“Harold…please,” he whispered, barely audible. Before Dr.Coomer could do or say anything, stunned, Tommy shot Bubby an angry look and dragged him out of the room.

Now it was only Benrey but Bubby definitely didn’t expect anything good to come out of him. He sank down onto his knees and took off his glasses. He looked over through tears at the shapeless blob that was Benrey.   
Benrey was still standing in the same spot, staring down at the button. “Is this what you wanted? Are you fucking happy now?” He wiped his eyes and futilely punched the glass. “I’m gonna die here and you’re probably just gonna stand there and watch, you sick bast-” 

He was interrupted by a yell as it looked like Benrey was…punching something?

“Why won’t you work, dammit!” Bubby scrambled to put his glasses back on. Benrey was hitting the button, attempting to free Bubby, but every time his hand seemed to slide through the entire desk and hit nothing. “What is wrong with this fucking thing?” What the fuck was going on?

“Why is it doing that? Is this some sort of sick joke?”

Benrey turned back to Bubby, pulling out a knife. “I’m trying to free you, idiot! Because Gordon’s too stupid to understand that he needs you!” Bubby was shocked a bit by the sentiment, and appreciated it, but didn’t have much time to think. He had to get out somehow, and quickly before Benrey got bored and left. 

“I don’t know, maybe try stabbing it or something? That seems to be something you’re good at.”

He nodded and turned back to the panel again, cackling angrily. “Fuck you!” Benrey swung the blade above his head, stabbing it down into the button. 

What the pair didn’t know was that the programming only usually allowed for Dr.Coomer (at Gordon’s command) or Gordon himself to be able to press the button, meaning that any other AI who tried to free Bubby would fail. But, fortunately for them, Benrey was holding something very close code-wise to Gordon, which was just close enough to confuse the game.

The blade made contact, getting stuck and sending sparks as the area began to short out and break around him. The tube’s glass shattered loudly as small fires began to ignite near Benrey. He cackled maniacally as the fires grew, retrieving the blade and grabbing Bubby by the hand. Bubby was trying to adjust and clean himself up when he was suddenly yanked up onto his feet and out of the room. “Let’s fucking go!” Benrey cheered. 

It took him a moment to realize what was happening, and when he did, he gave Benrey a thankful but uncomfortable look as he yanked his hand out of Benrey’s. This caused him to stop and turn to look at the older man. “What’s wrong?”

“Thanks for the rescue, but what are you, gay?” Bubby crossed his arms and gave a suspicious look. 

“I’m not gay. Why, are you gay?” Benrey crossed his arms as well and looked uncomfortably at his shoes.

“Of course not! I am very straight!”

They both started to walk forwards again beside each other. There was a pause before Benrey blurted out. “Why would anyone want to date a man anyway!”

“Yeah! I’ve dated plenty of women myself!”

More silence.

“Women are…very hot. Right?”

“Yeah. Women are very…attractive. Very nice.” Benrey agreed.

Another pause.

“Men are not hot!”

“Yeah, man! I’d never imagine dating Freeman in a million years!”

“Of course! And Harold isn’t that good looking either!”

“And I- Wait…who…who’s Harold?” Benrey raised an eyebrow at Bubby.

Bubby looked caught for a half-second before pointing an accusatory finger back at Benrey. “Did you just say, Freeman! As in Gor-?”

“Nn..No! I said F…Frr..Francesca!”

“And I said …Harriet. End of story.” Bubby began to walk ahead of Benrey when he stopped for a moment. “This never happened!”

The rest of the walk was spent in silence before they saw a skeleton wearing a labcoat turning a corner end of a long corridor. “Tommy!” The skeleton turned and waved as Benrey ran up close and rounded the corner.

Gordon turned around happily while Dr. Coomer looked distraught.“Can we please go back? You are missing out on a very good opportunity here!” 

“I told you already, we’re not going-Benrey! Finally, you decided to join us! What took you so-?”

Bubby rounded the corner, nearly out of breath. “I’m too to be running like this!”

“Bubby! How did you-”

“Bubby! You’re back! Uninjured! Uh, I mean, I never doubted that you would find your way back to us unharmed!” A wave of relief washed over his face.

“Can it. You all left me there except for Benrey.” He pushed past Dr.Coomer, grumbling quietly. “Out of the group, I would have never expected you to abandon me.” Dr.Coomer reached out to put a hand onto Bubby’s shoulder but was gently brushed off.

He got up into Gordon’s face, staring down at him. “Well, I’m here again. What are you gonna do now, shoot me? I guess trying to kill you really was the right decision after all.” He crossed his arms, waiting for a response. 

Gordon sighed. “I’m too tired for this. I have more important things to deal with anyway now.” He grumbled and motioned for the others to wait there while he entered a nearby bathroom. The others awkwardly stood in silence before hearing the crash of broken glass and saw Gordon walking out with a large shard of mirror in his hand. “Everyone sit down for this. You need to take this sitting down, I think.”

Everyone sat down, in a somewhat circle shape, Dr.Coomer sitting just behind Bubby, Benrey to Gordon’s left, and Tommy to his right. Gordon pulled out the notebook Tommy had finished only minutes earlier and rested it beside him for easy access in case he needed to translate anything.

“First, I’m going to need you all to look at me. Carefully. Does anything look wrong or weird about me?”

The group seemed generally confused and concerned. “No Gordon, you look like you always have. At least to me.” Dr.Coomer stated. The others nodded in agreement and made small noises of confirmation.

“Alright, that confirms my theory that you can’t see these sort of things unless I specifically state it, or unless you find out through other means. I’ll explain this better in a moment, just give me time to explain. So, since all of our lives are in real danger, I thought I should probably tell you all the truth.”

“What truth, Gordon?” Dr.Coomer carefully asked.

“None of you are real. This is all a video game that I am playing. You’re all just AI. Code.”

“C’mon man, you gotta be joking. We ain’t just some sorta simulation or whatever. I ain’t no PlayStation!” Benrey shook his head, while Dr.Coomer stayed silent.

“Gordon, you really expect us to believe that? Stop scaring Dr.Coomer with that sort of talk. We are real, I should know! I am the smartest of us here, after all!” Bubby angrily crossed his arms after gesturing at the man behind him. 

Tommy shook his head, disagreeing with Gordon, and let out a black to blue sweet voice. He looked through the book, reading “It isn’t true.”

“I can prove it. The game doesn’t want you to know you are just AI obviously, and as such, you can’t notice things that are...wrong. Like, look at Tommy! Only Benrey could see him as he was until I told you! And you can’t even see what’s wrong with me!” Gordon looked down at the shard of mirror and picked it up, looking at himself.

“You seriously don’t see anything weird?”

The more the group looked at his face, the more something felt off. When Gordon picked up the shard and tilted it so they could see his reflection. His face seemed to warp and twitch in the glass unnaturally. It was unsettling, to say the least. 

“I don’t know what to say...it doesn’t look right but I don’t know how to put it. I don’t like this at all.” Bubby admitted, seeming very disturbed.

“Guys. I’m wearing a fucking VR headset.”

Suddenly the image seemed to clear. There it was, clear as day. Gordon’s eyes were gone, and in its stead was a large slab of plastic strapped to his face. How they couldn’t have seen it before, they didn’t know-how. Tommy scooted back in surprise and his stream of black and blue grew stronger. 

Bubby and Benrey seemed shocked and confused, but Dr.Coomer was taking the sudden change the worst. He had his face in his hands and seemed to shake violently as he repeated to himself “None of this is real.”. He was relapsing back to his old self back when he first had seen the void outside of the sky, unable to think properly, instead just staying frozen in his horrified state. 

“Dr.Coomer? Dr.Coomer! Someone help him, I think he’s glitching out!” Gordon pointed and Bubby noticed that yes, indeed, he was not just shaking, he was shaking and his particles were tearing apart and coming together, just like a glitched character in a video game. It scared the hell out of him, but he moved over and tried his best to be comforting. He wasn’t the best at being emotional, but he could just barely manage when it mattered most.

“Dr. Coomer, look at me. Please.” 

“H-Hello Gor- H-Hello Bubb- None of this is-Ropes! We can- Help me Gor-Bub-Hello-O-o.”

“Everything is going to be alright.”

“Help me, Gord- Professor Bubby is- Playcoins! Hello Gordon!” Bubby held onto Dr.Coomer’s shoulders as he looked into his eyes calmly. “Hel-Hh-hello Bubby.”

Gordon took a deep breath as he watched the glitches fade and stop. Dr.Coomer sat up and Bubby sat beside him, placing a hand onto his shoulder. “I... I think I will be fine now. You can continue.” Gordon glanced at Tommy and Benrey, who had been conversing in sweet voice up until a moment ago. Benrey patted Tommy and gave Gordon a thumbs up.

“I said no more lies, and I mean it. My real name is William. William Wilson. Gordon Freeman is the default name for the protagonist and I didn’t feel like changing it to my own. I kinda like it, to be completely honest. Gordon Freeman! Sounds very scientific.”

The others scratched their heads and thought a bit in silence before Dr.Coomer spoke. “Gord-er…uhh…William, did you say?” 

“Yes, but you can keep calling me Gordon if it’s easier for you.”

“Well, Gordon, I am very grateful, but this is…quite a lot to take in. I’m sure you understand. May we rest here for the night soon, if there is nothing else? I think I need to sleep on this.”

“Yeah, definitely Dr.Coomer. That’s completely reasonable.” He nodded sadly at the distressed man. “If no one has any more questions, we can get ready and hunker down for the night.” 

There was nothing more asked, so the group began to settle down. William went back into the bathroom temporarily to splash water on his face, only to remember and realize the bottom of his face was the only thing that was left uncovered by VR equipment. This resulted in nearly nothing having the intended effect, instead just making him look like he has somehow taken a swim in the toilet. Fantastic. 

Gordon finished up in the bathroom and walked out to hear whispering and sweet voices in rooms nearby. He peeked cautiously over at the sound of quiet voices and saw Dr.Coomer and Bubby leaning against a wall behind a large metal container. Dr.Coomer was resting his head on Bubby’s shoulder, softly venting his worries. Bubby held him close, reassuring him yet looking away, trying to hide his own equally distraught face. Gordon slipped out before they got the chance to spot him, peeking over at the sweet familiar sounds in the next room.

He pulled out his notebook to check as he saw Tommy and Benrey singing to each other. Benrey sat atop a light fixture, singing out black notes of regret, as Tommy made himself a bed. Tommy continued to sing out white to blue, “I forgive you.” as he continued to prepare for the night. Gordon decided his best bet for a more peaceful sleep would be in the other room with the doctors, so he grabbed out some blankets from a box the others had raided and loudly entered the room. 

“Just wake me up if anything important happens, please. Goodnight guys.” He didn’t look over at them, not wanting to disturb them much. They needed time to cope, and he was gonna give them it.

“Goodnight Gordon.” Dr.Coomer gently added. Luckily, William was an easy sleeper and fell asleep pretty fast. The others soon followed, minus Benrey. As per the usual, Benrey didn’t sleep, as he didn’t really feel the need to, and just kept watch or played video games during the night. The night was nice in another way too. He could sit for an hour near Gordon and just watch him be safe. Be there, in front of him, contently. Benrey would also do the same with Tommy, just sit and watch him, make sure he was safe and happy while he rested. But tonight, after watching the others sleep for only around an hour, something happened.

He felt it, the thick air. The electricity all around him. The sudden blueish hue of everything.

“Hello, Benrey. It is…good to see you again.” G-Man was being sarcastic as he stood behind the other man, smiling eerily. Benrey stood up and turned around. 

“Whatcha want, man?” Benrey had always had a little inking there was something…off about reality, so him being a video game character wasn’t too hard to accept. But it still was uncomfortable and upsetting to him. He didn’t want to be code. He didn’t want to be fake. But, that’s the way it is.

“I come bearing… a gift. For you to help…Mr. Freeman…and dear Tommy. You still have to… figure the how out by yourself but…making it a little easier isn’t a bad thing…is it?” Benrey uncomfortably opened his palm to accept the item. G-Man clipped his hand into his briefcase and pulled out a shiny new police baton. “Now, Benrey, this is no ordinary weapon, you see. It can also provide information that may be…quite valuable to you.” He traced a door shape onto a nearby wall, leading to an opening appearing. Benrey took the baton and walked in as G-Man politely gestured him inside. 

The entire area was an endless void filled with numeric code. Benrey had to no clip to get around.“Why don’t you take a look around.” Benrey shrugged. Why not? For the first while, there was nothing much happening but Benrey flying around and G-Man following him from far behind. Watching ominously. Benrey realized, via experimenting with the baton, which he had put into his belt, he could access the understandable written code of whatever he tapped. He went around, reading bits of code. Benrey was able to read it and understand it due to some computer knowledge he had gained trying to make and modify video games. Everything was going well until he decided to try it on himself.

A large box popped up with the code, similar to the others, but incredibly long and complex. He read through it, finding ENDGAME.ai splattered everywhere. Oh, that was a great attempt at being ominous from G-Man, Benrey thought to himself as he continued. Wait, he had…stages? And had different states? Weird. Benrey checked his code against Bubby and Dr.Coomer’s code. He was puzzled. Both had constant states and stages, unlike him. 

“Why the fuck am I so different, man? Gordon needs a special security guard or something?” He peeked over at G-Man who was now…almost smiling? What the fuck? Why was he happy to hear this? 

Benrey looked down and racked his head for ideas. “Think man, think. It’s a video game. And I’m the master gamer. What type’a character has multiple stages?” The realization shot through him, terrifying him. 

ENDGAME.

He was the final boss. A twist boss, who goes from your companion to the last guy you gotta fight to win.

Benrey looked up over at G-Man, who looked like he was trying his best to hold back a laugh, but Benrey could hear his nonexistent laughing anyway. It mocked him as he tried to sit back against some code and process what he had discovered.

He was the bad guy.

The villain.

The guy everyone has to kill.

No wonder G-Man was pleased. The voices in his head laughed harder and harder at him relentlessly. 

He was going to have to hurt Dr.Coomer and Bubby.

He was going to hurt Tommy and Gordon.

He doesn’t want to hurt them or want any of this.

But Benrey doesn’t have a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I've been busy. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will try to finish the other chapters soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Guys! This is just going to be a very short story, and as such most of my time will be focused on the other work I am writing. Feel free to make art of this if you wish!


End file.
